Toronto Ryerson's Mattamy Athletics Centre + Loblaws at the Gardens | ?m | ?s | Ryerson University | Turner Fleischer

Completely agree, blixa. It's like turning St. Paul's Cathedral into a shopping mall because there aren't enough parishioners to keep it going. I know Maple Leaf Gardens is no St. Paul's, but Toronto is no London.
 
I'm really split on this one.

In favour:

-Loblaws will likely be the amongst the best retailers to recognize the importance of MLG. Others, be it Wal-Mart, Home Depot or CineScotiaBankOdeon, I'd fear would be less sympathetic. It's too big for a smaller business or another retailer known for more sympathetic reuse of old buildings (LCBO isn't bad, for example).
- It's at least a single-user, and won't be carved up into a shopping mall.
- Loblaws promised to have some sort of "shrine", and at least it would be easily accessible to the public.

Against:

- The original ice surface level will be parking.
- There are certainly more creative uses of the building.
- Pepsi Forum. Though the Forum was badly disfigured in the 1960s/1970s, the current iuse is horrible, save for the Richard statue and a few seats they kept for posterity.

I liked the one proposal that was floated that would have Ryerson take it over, use it as their arena and build a residence or classes above. That was probably a pipe dream - Ryerson doesn't have that kind of money or a deep donor base as say U of T.
 
What about sharing it with U of T? I guess Varsity Arena's too much of a heritage site to get rid of (and yet we can turn a site with much more heritage into a supermarket) but maybe they could split it, with U of T taking over some of the arena. Sharing it with the Hockey Hall of Fame was also a great-sounding idea.
 
The AHL Marlies would probably have attracted more attention if they made their home in Maple Leaf Gardens. Ricoh Coliseum is probably a bit too out of the way to attract fans (see the article I posted in General Discussions). Not only is MLG centrally located, the history of the building alone will make hardcore hockey fans want to come to MLG to watch games. The deal with Melnyk and the St. Mikes Majors fell through because the Majors were seen as "competition" to the almighty Maple Leafs, but the same definitely cannot be said about the Marlies.

In Philadelphia, the Flyers' AHL farm team, the Phantoms, play in the Wachovia Spectrum, former home of the Flyers, right next to the Flyers' current home rink.
 
I still have no idea why the Hall of Fame doesn't set up shop here.
 
I was watching CTV and they had some footage of inside MLG... it looks so cool now that its abandoned. Apparently Toronto Tourism recieves 2 calls a week from people who want to know how they can see the gardens.

Loblaws has a permit for minor demolition and has applied for a major demo permit. The city has not yet approved it... so theres still a chance to save MLG!
 
The AHL Marlies would probably have attracted more attention if they made their home in Maple Leaf Gardens. Ricoh Coliseum is probably a bit too out of the way to attract fans (see the article I posted in General Discussions). Not only is MLG centrally located, the history of the building alone will make hardcore hockey fans want to come to MLG to watch games. The deal with Melnyk and the St. Mikes Majors fell through because the Majors were seen as "competition" to the almighty Maple Leafs, but the same definitely cannot be said about the Marlies.

In Philadelphia, the Flyers' AHL farm team, the Phantoms, play in the Wachovia Spectrum, former home of the Flyers, right next to the Flyers' current home rink.
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I agree. They really missed a good opportunity.
 
It's better to do nothing than something really stupid.
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Buildings with nothing in them eventually come down. I think St. Paul's is safe, but churches around Toronto and the western world are being converted to a multitude of purposes - or being destroyed.

Plans to build housing on top and preserve the rink all failed because both uses could not be accommodated, and its questionable whether that would be better than a Loblaws. No one had funding to preserve the rink, and it's too large an arena for most purposes. The Hockey Hall of Fame is in the middle of Tourist-land and would occupy only a small piece of MLG anyways, leaving a need to do something else with the remainder of the building. They don't especially want to move. In all the plans for MLG since 1999, I haven't heard of one that everybody agreed was viable. I have no problem with the re-use of the building by Loblaws.
 
A mulitlevel shopping and office facility might have been a good idea- perhaps something classy along the lines of Complexe Les Ailes in Montreal. As a longterm plan they could have connected to the subway/PATH and College park. A glorified supermarket sounds like a shortterm experiment to me, but who knows maybe it will be something really unique..
 
CTV Toronto
Tue. Jan. 30 2007 6:47 PM ET
This CTV exclusive video shows the current state inside the Gardens.
Museum planned for renovated Maple Leaf Gardens
toronto.ctv.ca

The sight of a neglected Maple Leaf Gardens and word that building owner Loblaws wants to gut the building to make way for a supermarket touched a nerve with hockey fans in Toronto. But Loblaws says its plan will preserve the hockey shrine's integrity.

"It's an historic building. To take it back and turn it into something like that, it's a shame," one man told CTV's Tom Hayes on Tuesday.

Mayor David Miller echoed people's concerns on Tuesday.

"It's unfortunate. I think everybody would like to see this remain a hockey rink and be used for hockey," Miller said.

Since the Maple Leafs left the Gardens in 1999, the building has been in a slow state of decline.

On the outside, not much has changed. The building is a designated heritage site and in any development the outside walls and roof must be preserved. Inside, Maple Leaf Gardens is collecting dust.

Loblaws wants to change that by gutting the interior and turning it into two levels of parking and two levels of retail space.

But news of a supermarket in the hockey shrine caused worry among hockey fans. They want to see the hockey and cultural heritage of the building preserved.

Loblaws responded on Tuesday, saying they will help preserve the memorabilia and history of a redeveloped Maple Leaf Gardens.

Company spokesperson, and former city mayor David Crombie, said he has received several phone calls on the issue, one from as far away as Florida. He said Loblaws has plans for a museum.

"For sure there will be a museum," Crombie said Tuesday. "Probably at the corner of Church and Carlton (Streets)."

The museum will keep the lobby of the Gardens intact and also include rotating displays of memorabilia. It will stretch from the lobby to the south east corner of the building. But an ice surface is not part of Loblaws' plan.

Crombie added that there will be memories for people visiting the renovated Maple Leaf Gardens.

"The history of the place is not only hockey, though that's mainly it, but almost anything that happened of significance from 1931 on happened at the Gardens."

For hockey fans who want a piece of the Gardens, specifically one of the thousands of seats, a plan will be announced by Loblaws once all their plans for the building are finalized.

Construction on the building is expected to begin this year.

With a report from CTV's Tom Hayes
 
A parking garage and supermarket with a token museum on the corner to keep the heritage folks happy. A museum of what I wonder- hockey jerseys and a wax statue of Foster Hewitt? Doesn't TO already have something like that on front street.
 
"The history of the place is not only hockey, though that's mainly it, but almost anything that happened of significance from 1931 on happened at the Gardens."
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Like Dalton Camp's thoughtful farewell party for John Diefenbaker in 1967, except the Dief certainly did not see it that way.
 
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